four wheels

Posted on July 31, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

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four wheels

Ezekiel 10:9-14 (JDV)

Ezekiel 10:9 I looked, and noticed four wheels beside the cherubs, one wheel beside each cherub. The appearance of the wheels was like the gleam of beryl.
Ezekiel 10:10 In appearance, all four looked alike, like a wheel within a wheel.
Ezekiel 10:11 When they moved, they would go in any of the four directions, without pivoting as they moved. But wherever the head faced, they would go in that direction, without pivoting as they went.
Ezekiel 10:12 Their entire bodies, including their backs, hands, wings, and the wheels that the four of them had, were full of eyes all around.
Ezekiel 10:13 As I listened the wheels were called “the wheelwork.”
Ezekiel 10:14 Each one had four faces: one was the face of a cherub, the second the face of a human, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

four wheels

The wheels in the wheelwork are a symbol of the ability to go where one wants — as is clear from the phrase “they would go in any of the four directions” in verse 11. The eyes symbolize knowledge and insight. The beryl like gleam symbolizes beauty and glory. The different faces represent the most capable of each order of being: angelic, human, mammal, and bird. Together, the wheelwork showed that all creation depends on a higher power, and is answerable to God.

LORD, help us to live every moment with an awareness of our ultimate dependance on you.

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hell comes from a holiness

Posted on July 30, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

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hell comes from a holiness

Ezekiel 10:6-8 (JDV)

Ezekiel 10:6 After Yahveh commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from inside the wheelwork, from among the cherubs,” the man went in and stood beside a wheel.
Ezekiel 10:7 Then the cherub reached out his hand to the fire that was among them. He took some and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and went out.
Ezekiel 10:8 The cherubs appeared to have the form of human hands under their wings.

hell comes from a holiness

The fact that this fire Ezekiel saw came from among the cherubs signified that the judgment was from God, not the result of human conflict. Jerusalem’s destruction would be a divine act.

Gehenna Hell is the ultimate divine act of destruction. The lost will go there and suffer the punishment of permanent destruction because God cannot endure their rebellion forever. That is not what many have been taught about hell. But that is what Jesus taught. Hell comes from a holiness that cannot endure perpetual sin.

LORD, purify us by your grace today so that we never have to suffer the destruction we deserve.

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unchangeable omnipotence

Posted on July 29, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

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unchangeable omnipotence

Ezekiel 10:3-5 (JDV)

Ezekiel 10:3 Now the cherubs were standing to the right hand of the house when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court.
Ezekiel 10:4 Then the impressive appearance of Yahveh rose from above the cherub to the threshold of the house. The house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of Yahveh’s impressive appearance.
Ezekiel 10:5 The sound of the cherubs’ wings could be heard as far as the outer court; it was like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.

unchangeable omnipotence

Why this spectacular sight and sound display if God was in the process of planning to judge his own people? I am thinking that he is showing that the people’s rebellion and idolatry have not limited his power to act.

Sometimes we talk about our faith as if it gives God power. That is never the case. Even if the whole world would reject God, it would not limit his power one bit. He is sovereign.

LORD, thank you for your unchangeable omnipotence.

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reassigned

Posted on July 28, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

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reassigned

Ezekiel 10:1-2 (JDV)

Ezekiel 10:1 Then I looked, and noticed above the expanse over the heads of the cherubs was something like a throne with the appearance of lapis lazuli.
Ezekiel 10:2 Yahveh spoke to the man clothed in linen and said, “Go inside the wheelwork beneath the cherubs. Fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubs and scatter them over the city.” So he went in as I watched.

reassigned

For the past few days, we have been looking at a vision about a man with a clipboard. He continues to be featured in this vision as it continues from Ezekiel 9. But his purpose has changed. Whereas he was last seen writing peoples’ names down who will be spared from the immanent destruction of Jerusalem, now that time is finished. He has put down his clipboard and is now instructed to pick up some hot coals and scatter them over the city.

Ellicot writes “Hitherto, in Ezekiel 9, he has been employed only in a work of mercy and protection. It is not without significance that now the same person is made the agent of judgment. As God’s love is turned to wrath by man’s impenitence, and as His blessings given to man become curses by their abuse, so those employed by Him as the instruments of His loving-kindness become the very executioners of his “fury.”” (Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers).

Today, God makes his angels available to us as “ministering spirits, sent out to serve those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14 NET). But that ministry to human beings is a temporary assignment. One day, the list will be complete, and the protecting angels will be reassigned. Don’t count on a guardian angel to protect you when hell’s flames are ready to destroy. Those flames cannot be extinguished, even by an angel.

LORD, give us the wisdom to seek your grace while it is available in Christ.

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the last box checked

Posted on July 27, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

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the last box checked

Ezekiel 9:9-11 (JDV)

Ezekiel 9:9 He said to me, “The violation of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of bloodshed, and the city entirely warped, because they say, ‘Yahveh has abandoned the land; he does not see.’
Ezekiel 9:10 But as for me, my eye will not look compassionately on them or spare them. I will bring their conduct down on their own heads.”
Ezekiel 9:11 Then I noticed the man clothed in linen and carrying writing equipment responded back. This is what he said, “I have done all that you commanded me.”

the last box checked

As Ezekiel nine concludes, this dark vision becomes even more terrifying. It is a simple vision of seven “men” — six of them sent to destroy Jerusalem for its sins, and the seventh with something like a clipboard, marking the heads of those who will be spared. Now — get the significance of what the clipboard man says in today’s text. He says “I have done all that you commanded me.” In other words, the remnant has been marked, so now the destruction can begin.

As our generation goes deeper and deeper into the darkness of rebellion against God and his righteousness, one wonders whether we will see (on a planetary level) what Ezekiel saw in this vision. Will this generation see a day when the secretary has no more names to write down — no more boxes to check? When the last box is checked, the destruction will begin.

Hell has been a slow train coming, but when it comes, only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will avoid it. For everyone else, that fire will be unquenchable, and it will destroy the soul and body.

LORD, we seek your will, and plead for you to put us on your list, and help us to get others to do the same.

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your conscience may save your life

Posted on July 26, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

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your conscience may save your life

Ezekiel 9:3-8 (JDV)

Ezekiel 9:3 Then the impressive appearance of the God of Israel rose from above the cherub where it had been, to the threshold of the house. He called to the man clothed in linen and carrying writing equipment.
Ezekiel 9:4 “Pass throughout the city of Jerusalem,” Yahveh said to him, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the repulsive practices committed in it.”
Ezekiel 9:5 He spoke to the others in my hearing: “Pass through the city after him and start killing; do not look compassionately on them or spare them!
Ezekiel 9:6 Slaughter the old men, the young men and women, as well as the children and older women, but do not come near anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were in front of the house.
Ezekiel 9:7 Then he said to them, “Defile the house and fill the courts with the murdered ones. Go!” So they went out killing people in the city.
Ezekiel 9:8 While they were killing, I was left alone. And I fell face-down and cried out, “Oh, Lord God! Are you going to destroy the entire remnant of Israel when you pour out your wrath on Jerusalem?”

your conscience may save your life

In the vision that Ezekiel saw, the man with the clipboard (see yesterday’s post) marked the people who sighed and groaned over the idolatry and hypocrisy that had infested their city. Those acts of conscience were what the clipboard man was looking for. When he saw someone who felt sick over the moral state of Jerusalem, he would mark that person’s forehead. The mark was a sign that this person would be excluded from the judgment. Because they did not ignore the evil present among them, they would be spared when God came to punish it.

My friend, don’t try to close your mind to hypocrisy and injustice and violence and prejudice and other forms of evil. If you can do nothing else, let your voice be heard. That simple act of conscience may save your life. Our God will not stay hidden. When he shows up, he will deal with evil. If you do not say something now, you just might be included in the slaughter.

LORD, give us the wisdom to speak up.

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the clipboard

Posted on July 25, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

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the clipboard

Ezekiel 9:1-2 (JDV)

Ezekiel 9:1 Then he called loudly in my hearing, “Come near, executioners of the city, each of you with a destructive weapon in his hand.”
Ezekiel 9:2 And I saw six men coming from the direction of the Upper Gate, which faces north, each with a wrecking tool in his hand. There was another man among them, clothed in linen, carrying scribe’s writing equipment. They came and stood beside the bronze altar.

the clipboard

One of the “men” in the vision looks like a scribe. I imagine him with modern equivalent — a clipboard. He is recording the destruction, and making sure that those who will be spared are spared.

Is your name on that clipboard? I pray that it is. You will not be spared by living a “decent” life. None of us are decent enough. There is only one thing that will protect us from the wrecking ball of God’s wrath. Jesus Christ took the punishment we deserve for our personal sins. Come to him if you want your name on the clipboard.

LORD, draw people to yourself through these words.

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I don’t want to talk about it

Posted on July 24, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

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I don’t want to talk about it

Ezekiel 8:16-18 (JDV)

Ezekiel 8:16 So he brought me to the inner court of Yahveh’s house, and I noticed about twenty-five men at the entrance of Yahveh’s house, between the portico and the altar, with their backs to Yahveh’s house and their faces turned to the east. They were bowing to the east in the worship of the sun.
Ezekiel 8:17 And he said to me, “Do you see this, son of Adam? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the repulsive acts they are doing here, that they must also fill the land with violence and repeatedly anger me, even – notice this – putting the branch to their nose?
Ezekiel 8:18 That is why I am responding with wrath. My eye will not look compassionately or spare them. Though they call loudly in my hearing, I will not listen to them.”

I don’t want to talk about it

I consulted numerous commentaries to get an idea of what Ezekiel meant by these idolaters putting the branch to their nose. Most of them claimed to know what it meant but were reluctant to share it because the practice was particularly vile. It represented an act so repulsive that even describing it would be a sin.

I understand that feeling. When we stop to think about the sins that people are committing all around us — and daring us to expose them — we feel reluctant to do so, because we don’t even want to talk about these things. Yet, sadly, that is what the world has come to.

I am not claiming to be sinless. All of us are sinners — all of us fall short of God’s glory. One thing these prophetic visions teach us is that God is not indifferent to our sin. It hurts him when we turn our back on him, and worship something unworthy of worship — even our glorious sun. It hurts him when we flaunt our sin.

No one will be protected from God’s wrath — even those who claim to be his. That is another lesson from the prophets. The prophets mostly spoke against the sin of God’s own people. Our only protection from God’s coming wrath is faith in his Son — who has taken the punishment for our sin on the cross.

LORD, use these words to draw sinners to the Savior before it is too late.

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when a tear is not a tear

Posted on July 23, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

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when a tear is not a tear

Ezekiel 8:14-15 (JDV)

Ezekiel 8:14 Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of Yahveh’s house, and I noticed women sitting there crying over Tammuz.
Ezekiel 8:15 And he said to me, “Do you see this, son of Adam? You will see even more repulsive acts than these.”

when a tear is not a tear

Why would weeping by these women be seen as a repulsive act? They were mourning the change of the seasons — the death of Adonis. It was nature worship to the extreme. It would be followed by equally passionate wild living and sexual promiscuity as these same women would celebrate the rebirth of Adonis. It was all an act — a pagan ritual designed to get the gods to increase fertility, and to disguise sexual immorality by giving it a religious mask.

A tear is not a tear when it is aimed at getting people to reject God and his standard of truth and morality. When the world comes to us with tears in their eyes — claiming that we are being unfair to homosexuals and those who practice abortion — those tears are not tears. They are sermons. They are sermons preached against God and against his word. They are repulsive acts.

LORD, give us wisdom to realize when a tear is not a tear.

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dig through the wall

Posted on July 22, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

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dig through the wall

Ezekiel 8:7-13 (JDV)

Ezekiel 8:7 Then he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, I noticed a hole in the wall.
Ezekiel 8:8 He said to me, “Son of Adam, dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall and noticed a doorway.
Ezekiel 8:9 He said to me, “Go in and see the repulsive, guilty acts they are committing here.”
Ezekiel 8:10 I went in and looked, and there engraved all around the wall was every kind of repulsive thing – crawling creatures and beasts – as well as all the idols of the house of Israel.
Ezekiel 8:11 Seventy elders from the house of Israel were standing in front of them, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had a fire-pan in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising up.
Ezekiel 8:12 He said to me, “Son of Adam, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his idol? You see, they are saying, ‘Yahveh does not see us. Yahveh has abandoned the land.'”
Ezekiel 8:13 Again he said to me, “You will see even more repulsive acts that they are committing.”

dig through the wall

The prophet was told to dig through the wall. If he just went beyond the surface, he would find all kinds of vile practices done not by the fringe of society, but by its religious leaders. They do these things away from the public, but they are not afraid of doing them before God. Why? They “are saying, ‘Yahveh does not see us.”

The secret sins are the result of a kind of atheism. They have abandoned a sincere faith in God and are doing everything for show.

What would happen today if we dug through a few walls, and exposed what our leaders are doing in secret? What would be the result if we exposed our leaders — religious, political, social — for what they truly believe?

LORD, give us the courage to expose the darkness — to dig through the wall.

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